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Gun groups' records sought as part of gay couple's Colorado lawsuit

By Lynn BartelsThe Denver Post

Posted:
01/25/2013 12:27:46 PM MST

Updated:
01/25/2013 11:50:53 PM MST

Photographer Kristina Hill (not in photo) and married couple Brian Edwards, left and Thomas Privitere are suing an organization that used their engagement photos in an attack mailer against Colorado State Sen. Jean White. They gathered outside the federal courthouse in downtown Denver on Wednesday, September 26, 2012. (Cyrus McCrimmon, Denver Post file photo)

Dudley Brown, a spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners organization (Special to The Denver Post)

One of Colorado's most controversial gun-rights advocates has been identified as a potential witness in a federal lawsuit over attack ads featuring the photograph of two gay men kissing, resulting in a sweeping subpoena seeking records from two gun organizations.

Court records connect Dudley Brown, a Windsor Republican, to the "preparation" of the mailers, which targeted state Senate candidate Jean White and state House candidate Jeff Hare. Both lost their GOP primaries.

The mailers included the same copyrighted photograph of the gay couple, but with altered backgrounds. The New Jersey couple and their photographer have sued the Virginia firm that sent the mailers.

Brown, his gun ally Luke O'Dell, and their two gun organizations, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and National Association for Gun Rights, are fighting the subpoena.

It seeks a variety of documents — including but not limited to contracts, letters, handwritten notes, expense reports, computer documents and telephone logs — from Brown and O'Dell, and volunteers, directors, attorneys and employees of the gun groups. The documents concern not just the mailers but the 2012 state GOP primary.

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"On every level the subpoena is too invasive, too burdensome and too broad to survive," Fort Collins attorney Terrance Ryan wrote in his motion to quash the subpoena.

He said that demanding the gun organizations' documents relating to the election "would work to chill those organizations' legitimate interest in Colorado politics" and "compromise their long-standing status as leaders in the fight to preserve constitutional rights."

Ryan dismissed the subpoenas a fishing expedition for the gun groups' "confidential" databases.

But Christine Sun, deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the couple and their photographer, said their investigation has led them to believe the Virginia firm did not act alone.

"Through the subpoena process we hope to expose all those who were involved in this malicious act so that they too, can be held accountable," she said.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver confirms what a number of Republicans have said for months: Brown played a role in the mailers. A social conservative, he is best known for targeting members of his own party, who aren't shy with their criticism of him.

White said "the guy is full of lies." Former Rep. Jim Kerr, a Littleton Republican, another target of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, has called Brown "reprehensible."

Brown last year declined to answer questions from The Denver Post about the mailers. But he responded this week to an e-mail from The Post asking about his being named as a potential witness by the Virginia firm, Public Advocate of the United States.

"I can volunteer my help on lobbying campaigns for any organization I want, and on any issue I care about," he responded via e-mail.

Brown added that his work on the mailers was as a volunteer and had nothing do with his being executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.

"Right," White said, rolling her eyes.

The mailer attacking her featured a picture of the two men kissing, snow-covered trees and the words: "Senator Jean White's ideas of 'family values?' " White was accused of being allied with the "radical homosexual lobby."

Neither the couple, Brian Edwards and Thomas Privitere of New Jersey, nor their photographer, Kristina Hill, gave permission for their engagement photograph to be used. The original picture shows the couple with the Manhattan skyline in the background.

This mailer was paid for by Public Advocates for the United States, a conservative Washington, D.C., group and targets Sen. Jean White for her vote last year and this year in support of a bill allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions. (Handout)

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